royal news
Behind every powerful man is a strong woman, so the saying goes, but in King Charles III’s case, there are three. Queen Camilla, sister Princess Anne and sister-in-law Sophie Wessex have been stepping up in the monarch’s absence while he undergoes treatment for cancer. With his eldest son Prince William taking a break from public engagements to care for his wife Kate, who is also being treated for cancer, it’s been down to Camilla, Anne and Sophie to take on royal responsibilities on their behalf.
Anne, officially known as The Princess Royal, is currently covering a massive 70 per cent of all engagements. At the age of 73, the only daughter of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip shows no signs of slowing down as she undertakes 55 of the 78 public engagements listed in the royal diary in the eight-week period between March 18 and May 10. It’s a marked increased workload for the royal, who performed more than 500 engagements last year and, at one point, attended five events in one day. In 2019, she impressively carried out more than 500 engagements and is patron of over 300 organisations – stealing the crown as the most productive royal from her big brother Charles.
Wesley Kerr, former BBC correspondent, said, “Anne is wise, intelligent, incredibly plugged in to the modern United Kingdom. She is the person the King has known longest. She has the perfect perspective and characteristics to shoulder some of the King’s responsibility at this time.” Dickie Arbiter, Queen Elizabeth’s former press spokesperson, added, “She just gets on with it, often carrying out multiple engagements in one day.”
For Anne, who lives at Gatcombe Park in the Cotswolds, it’s all part of the day job. “If I’m going to be in London, I don’t want to be hanging about,” said the royal stalwart, who has always been close to Charles. “A lot of stuff goes on here, so there’s a question of filling in the time. I’m fortunate that the programme I make up is a direct result of being asked to do these things. It would be a pity if you didn’t try and do them.”
Retirement is out of the question for her. “I don’t think retirement is quite the same for me. Most people would say we’re very lucky not to be in that situation because you wouldn’t want to just stop,” she said. “It is, to a large extent, the choice of the organisations you’re involved with and whether they feel you’re still relevant. I have to admit both my father and my mother continued being there for a lot longer than I had in mind, but we’ll see.”
Alongside Anne stands Camilla. In addition to supporting her long-term lo
